Authorities on Monday were investigating a possible nuclear smuggling ring involving residents of the former Soviet Union, after the autobahn arrest of two immigrants with uranium stashed in the trunk of their Mercedes-Benz. Bavarian state police said the unidentified men were trying to sell 2.6 pounds of the radioactive material for $1.1 million when arrested Thursday.

On the 14th floor of the federal courthouse here, a strange coda to the Cold War is playing out, its unwilling protagonist a Florida retiree who, until last year, was bagging groceries at a supermarket to help make ends meet. Frail and nearly bald, 74-year-old George Trofimoff would seem much more at home on a sun-dappled shuffleboard court than sitting in the chair of an accused criminal. But according to U.S.

In April, 1945, a Red Army colonel named Magomed-Khan Abdul Pashayev joined the assault on an encircled Berlin. After planting the first Soviet flag in the city's suburbs, his regiment helped capture and hold the Reichstag until the Nazi surrender on May 9. "Germany is defeated, but as soon as it is raised from ruin we shall leave," he told his son. "What people would long endure a foreign army as masters of their own land?" Two winters later, Pashayev was back home in Russia.

In April, 1945, a Red Army colonel named Magomed-Khan Abdul Pashayev joined the assault on an encircled Berlin. After planting the first Soviet flag in the city's suburbs, his regiment helped capture and hold the Reichstag until the Nazi surrender on May 9. "Germany is defeated, but as soon as it is raised from ruin we shall leave," he told his son. "What people would long endure a foreign army as masters of their own land?" Two winters later, Pashayev was back home in Russia.

Re "Russians Leave Germany Minus Fond Farewells," June 26: The proper comparison, on the apples for apples principle, is to compare the 339,000 troops plus the 211,000 dependents and civilian support personnel the former Soviet Union kept in the former East Germany with the several hundred thousand troops and dependents the U.S., Britain and France kept in West Germany, and the conclusion would have been that there indeed was a near parity of...

How do you say "bum's rush" in German? The approximate translation is a deplorable seven syllables long, but no matter. The expression has been vividly played out all around greater Berlin this spring and early summer, in the final act of the great piece of theater known as the end of the Cold War: Germany's back-of-the-hand farewell to the Russians.

On the 14th floor of the federal courthouse here, a strange coda to the Cold War is playing out, its unwilling protagonist a Florida retiree who, until last year, was bagging groceries at a supermarket to help make ends meet. Frail and nearly bald, 74-year-old George Trofimoff would seem much more at home on a sun-dappled shuffleboard court than sitting in the chair of an accused criminal. But according to U.S.

The United States will play for the Davis Cup title against Russia this week without Andre Agassi. The world's No. 2 player has an injured chest and the U.S. Tennis Association announced his withdrawal Tuesday. Agassi strained a chest muscle during the Davis Cup semifinals against Sweden in Las Vegas in September. He aggravated the injury during a tournament in Essen, Germany, last month and has not played since. Agassi, who lost his No.

April 16, 1997 | EDWARD N. LUTTWAK, Edward N. Luttwak is a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington

An aura of inevitability has descended over the decision to expand NATO to include the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland. President Clinton, Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, Henry Kissinger and of course Zbigniew Brzezinski all have declared it a wonderful idea. The three countries are "insecure," right? NATO has always successfully guaranteed the security of all its members, right? NATO membership is therefore the logical solution, right? Wrong, say the vast majority of U.S.

For nearly three centuries, the region that today is marked on the political map as the German state of Brandenburg has stood in constant readiness for war. In the 18th Century, these pine-covered flatlands were the parade ground of Prussian military might; during the Nazi rearmament of the 1930s, they became the command and control center for Hitler's Wehrmacht.

Re "Russians Leave Germany Minus Fond Farewells," June 26: The proper comparison, on the apples for apples principle, is to compare the 339,000 troops plus the 211,000 dependents and civilian support personnel the former Soviet Union kept in the former East Germany with the several hundred thousand troops and dependents the U.S., Britain and France kept in West Germany, and the conclusion would have been that there indeed was a near parity of...

How do you say "bum's rush" in German? The approximate translation is a deplorable seven syllables long, but no matter. The expression has been vividly played out all around greater Berlin this spring and early summer, in the final act of the great piece of theater known as the end of the Cold War: Germany's back-of-the-hand farewell to the Russians.

Authorities on Monday were investigating a possible nuclear smuggling ring involving residents of the former Soviet Union, after the autobahn arrest of two immigrants with uranium stashed in the trunk of their Mercedes-Benz. Bavarian state police said the unidentified men were trying to sell 2.6 pounds of the radioactive material for $1.1 million when arrested Thursday.

"Imperium" is the name Ryszard Kapuscinski gives to the shadow that darkens his personal life and his life in history. In the United States we are not used to connecting the two: we may study history a little, but few of us think of ourselves as living in it. A D-day celebration is a date in our calendar of fuzzy remembrance shows. It belongs to June, the moonwalk belongs to July, Woodstock to August.